Hitman: Contracts
|genre= Third Person Stealth |game modes=Campaign Mode |ratings=ESRB: Mature (M) OFLC: Mature Accompanied (MA15+) |platforms=Xbox, PlayStation 2, Windows |website=http://www.hitmancontracts.com/ }} Hitman: Contracts is the third game of the Hitman series. Hitman: Contracts delivers more action-packed and suspense-filled missions, with a greater variety of ways to make the perfect kill and an increased arsenal of firearms and close-combat weapons. The players assume, as usual, the role of Agent 47, one of the most ruthlessly efficient contract killers in gaming history. Beginning in Paris, the game sees 47 in a vulnerable situation, and promises to be the most disturbing episode in the series. A new graphics engine showcases your 'work' in brutal detail, and brings the new locations to life. An improved control system and more gradual learning curve will ensure that the game is accessible to all aspiring hitmen. Hitman Contracts is compatible with the Xbox 360 though it is not on Valve's digital distribution service Steam. Storyline The plot starts with Agent 47, who returns to his hotel room in Paris following a hit in an opera house. On his way back, he is intercepted by a French police officer and is shot in the liver. Wounded, 47 staggers back to his apartment, where he collapses out of shock and begins to have hallucinatory flashbacks to his previous assignments (although not a direct follow-up of the Hitman series' first game, Hitman: Codename 47, it does fill in some of the gaps in the Hitman storyline following the end of Codename 47, as well as most of the levels from Codename 47 being remastered and incorporated into the game.) His first flashback, Asylum Aftermath, takes him back to the events following Codename 47's "The Setup" and "Meet Your Brother". After executing Dr. Ortmeyer, the asylum comes under siege by Romanian special forces, who have set up a defensive perimeter around its exterior. Agent 47 explores the asylum, which has been overrun by the inmates, encountering one jumping from a catwalk to his death and another opening fire at SWAT officers with an SMG before being killed himself, while making his way out. He manages to sneak out to the asylum's grounds, stealing a police cruiser and smashing through the facility's gates towards freedom. Trying to stay awake, he flashes back to another contract, where he was tasked with infiltrating a slaughterhouse used as the setting of an opium-fueled bondage rave and killing the "Meat King", and his lawyer, Andrei Puscus, as well as recovering any evidence regarding the disappearance of the client's daughter, following a trial where the Meat King, represented by Puscus, was acquitted. After the slaughterhouse hallucination, Agent 47 relives a contract in Siberia, his objective being to assassinate the terrorist Fabian Fuchs (one of his genetic uncles), his Red Army link and Chechen sympathizer Sergei Bjarkhov, and to destroy the latter's nuclear weapon manufacture capabilities by sinking the abandoned nuclear submarine the weapons lab was located in with C4 charges. By this point, 47 has almost succumbed to the pain and is about to fall unconscious when he is saved by a doctor sent by the Agency. The doctor brings 47 to a table in the hotel room, where he prepares to carry out the surgery, but not before taking a sip from a flask and dowsing 47's wound with apparently alcoholic contents. The sound and possibly smell of the splashing alcohol brings back memories of another contract 47 was assigned to. For this contract, he was assigned to kill the members of an infamous English family, Lord Beldingford and his son, as well as find and rescue Giles Northcroft, the son of the client, from captivity at the Beldingford estate, saving him from being the prey in the Beldingford's hunt. He then relives two more contracts: the first involving a biker gang in Rotterdam, and the second involving Arkadij Jegorov, one of Agent 47's genetic fathers, who had taken refuge in a transport ship and, surrounded by local police and SWAT teams, threatened to detonate a nuclear warhead unless his demands were met. The final hits in 47's hallucinations involve a mission in Budapest with the objective of killing Franz Fuchs and recovering a briefcase with an X-ray explosive, and some of his first hits, triad leader Lee Hong, who he first weakens by provoking a war between Hong's Red Dragon triad and the rivaling Blue Lotus triad by killing several Blue Lotus members and the corrupt chief of police before finally targeting Hong himself. Following the Hong flashback, 47 finally comes round, and finds the hotel surrounded by French Police. Sitting in a chair, he starts checking his weapons, at which point the SWAT outside fire smoke grenades into his room. He evades residents and police officers as he makes his way outside, finding Inspector Fournier and killing him. After silencing the Inspector who had discovered his identity, he enters an ambulance and flees towards DeGaulle Airport, ready to escape France. The ending shows 47 and Diana Burnwood onboard an airliner. Diana tells 47 that she is aware that the Agency is being targeted by an unknown group, and asks 47 if he "has enough money for the upcoming hit", leading to the events of ''Blood Money''. Gameplay Instead of attempting to implement new elements into Contracts, IO Interactive instead used the game as a refinement of the concepts introduced in the previous games, Codename 47 and Silent Assassin. This time, the options with which to kill targets have been greatly increased from the previous outings. Many of the series' trademark options to assassinate targets—poisionings, sabotage, sniping and so on—are present in almost every level, with at least three definite ways in which targets can be killed. Notable options include suffocation of sleeping targets by beside pillows, spiking tea with a heavy dose of rat poison and locking one target in particular within a dangerously hot sauna. The game attempts to focus on more of the more stealthier elements of the Hitman series by accommodating players who wish to sneak about and mostly forgo the use of disguises in order to kill their targets. There also multiple ways to navigate around every one of the missions areas, with many containing areas with wide spaces and some even hiding secret passages. Finally, the AI has received a revamp in this game. Instead of enemy AI—i.e. Guards and Police—simply trying to find, wear down and eliminate the player if their cover is blown during a mission, they will instead work together in teams to outmaneuver and outgun you, meaning that combat situations are now far more dangerous than they were previously. The AI also communicates more with each other, meaning that suspicious actions committed by you will cause other guards to become alert and make it harder for you to escape or navigate without attracting attention. Missions # Asylum Aftermath # The Meat King's Party # The Bjarkhov Bomb # Beldingford Manor # Rendezvous in Rotterdam # Deadly Cargo # Traditions of the Trade # Slaying a Dragon # The Wang Fou Incident # The Seafood Massacre # The Lee Hong Assassination # Hunter and Hunted Out of all of the twelve levels present in the game, only one of them takes place in the daytime. It is raining in nearly every level, as the rain represents the distortion of 47's memories. Targets * Campbell Sturrock * Malcolm Sturrock * Andrei Puscus * Fabian Fuchs * Sergei Bjarkov * Winston Beldingford * Alistair Beldingford * Rutgert Van Leuven * Klaas Teller * Boris Deruzka * Frantz Fuchs * Fritz Fuchs * Red Dragon Negotiator * Blue Lotus Emissary * Hong Kong Chief of Police * Lee Hong * Albert Fournier Characters * Agent 47 * Otto Wolfgang Ort-Meyer * Mei-Ling * Yurishka * Campbell Sturrock * Malcolm Sturrock * Andrei Puscus * Fabian Fuchs * Frantz Fuchs * Sergei Bjarkhov * Winston Beldingford * Alistair Beldingford * Rutgert Van Leuven * Klaas Teller * Boris Deruzka * Lee Hong * Albert Fournier Weapons * Silverballer * GK17 * CZ2000 * SG220 .S * Gold Desert Eagle * Magnum 500 * Micro Uzi * MP5 Sub-Machine Gun * AUG Sub-Machine Gun * MP9 Sub-Machine Gun * AK-74 * M4 Carbine Assault Rifle * Enforcer Sniper Rifle * R93 Sniper Rifle * PGM Sniper Rifle * Dragunov Sniper Rifle * W2000 Sniper Rifle * SPAS 12 Shotgun * Sawn Off Shotgun * Double-Barreled Shotgun * M60 Light Machine Gun * Mini Gun Notes * The "AK-74" in-game is actually modelled on the AK-101 * The game will be part of the Hitman HD Collection. See also * Easter eggs * Glitches Videos Hitman: Contracts Trailer. Category:Hitman: Contracts Category:Games Category:Hitman